


distance and trust (your best rival)

by mindwalker



Series: khrfest round V [2]
Category: Katekyou Hitman Reborn!
Genre: Friendship/Rivalry, Gen, Implied Relationships, Pre-Canon, Trust Issues
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-23
Updated: 2011-12-23
Packaged: 2017-10-27 21:45:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 883
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/300366
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mindwalker/pseuds/mindwalker
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>You think, maybe ‘Irie’ is some kind of common family name, like ‘Smith’. Or maybe there’s something wrong with the encoding. Because the possibility of meeting your Japanese friend/rival as a capo of Italian mafia is less than one percent, and you don’t need calculations to tell you that.</p>
            </blockquote>





	distance and trust (your best rival)

The first time they took notice of each other, they didn’t actually _meet._ The robotechnics competition was held in Europe, everyone around Shouichi was speaking English or some other western language and he hardly understood a word from their chatter, but he got one thing for sure: nearly half of the participants came there from USA.

‘This one is positively _brilliant,_ ’ Shouichi thinks, looking at the machine and the boy tinkering with it.

So he resolved to apply for a scholarship and spent his last two years of high school polishing the language.

 

Three years later, the same blonde boy walked to him and simply said: “I liked your work from that time in Munich.” Like they were friends already. And then, as if he just remembered: “I’m Spanner. And you must be from Massachusetts team, so we’re rivals.”

And it came spiraling down from there.

 

“You have no means to do it, Shouichi.”

“How can you be so sure? Science doesn’t just take strides, it’s running rampant! Like, have you even heard about e-books till a year ago?”

“…In fact, I have. I think I even mentioned the project to you.”

“Okay, fine. But have you thought it possible so quickly? That they’d be up and done and flooding the market _right now_? I sure didn’t.”

“I get your point, but there currently is no such thing for you to use. It’s stuff for the future, Shouichi, you’ll have to make do with what you can get or wait for someone to invent that alloy you want.”

“Spanner, it already exists somewhere. We just know nothing of it.”

He thought, perhaps, Shouichi knew something he didn’t, but dropped the subject. He didn’t like arguing about things that couldn’t be proved one way or another.

 

“That friend of yours, whatshisname…”

“Yeah?”

“He’s graduating this year, right?”

“He is and he’s invited me to Italy after.”

Spanner thought it strange. There was that convent Shouichi looked so forward to, and he once mentioned something about his family in Japan. But now he was going on a vacation to Europe. But, as usual, he said nothing of it.

“A shame. You declined the offer to Toronto last time, and now you’re not going to Seoul this summer. The competition’s becoming a bit stale without you.”

Shouichi’s smile on the monitor looked a bit forced, but maybe it was just bad lighting.

“Sorry, plans changed.”

 

In Korea Spanner got approached by a respectable looking man in a suit.

“Would you like to work with a new kind of energy? Unfortunately, the details are classified, but we’ve watched your progress and we’re positive that you’re the right person for the job.”

Spanner thought something was shady about the invitation, but brushed it off. The man said “weapons” and “technology” and all the right words to lure him in. Arms industry was always well-funded and rapidly developing.

If he could shape his dream, any secrecy would be worth it. He’d build them a perfect killing machine, if that was what they wanted.

“I’ll think of it,” he answered and resumed work on his current project.

 

In little less than a year, the organization has changed its name, headquarters and, well, pretty much everything. From what he understood, they’ve recently merged with another group ( _Family,_ someone corrected. Well, whatever, human deals mean little to him) and the power structure is still shaky — he wouldn’t care a fig for all this, but it meant that he had no one to report to.

He got assigned to “Black Spell”, whatever that meant, but would be supervised by some “White” officer. He didn’t get the point of dividing the people and then mixing them together again, but all this was really not his business. His job is hardware and programs and the stuff that needed wires and microchips.

Spanner thinks he’s heard the name of local top shot somewhere — “Byakuran”, a girlish thing to call a guy — but he’s sure he’s never met him. You don’t forget smile like his.

 

(You think, maybe ‘Irie’ is some kind of common family name, like ‘Smith’. Or maybe there’s something wrong with the encoding. Because the possibility of meeting your Japanese friend/rival as a capo of _Italian mafia_ is less than one percent, and you don’t need calculations to tell you that. But you open the page nonetheless, and there it reads: “Irie Shouichi, captain of the 2nd Rosa Squad”. Right hand to the boss, that Byakuran person.

And you haven’t heard from him since university.

“I thought I knew you,” you tell the LCD screen and predictably it offers no explanations. It’s strange.

Your devices always provided you with answers to anything. Why can’t you get one now?)

 

The report states clear: Sawada Tsunayoshi has been eliminated, search for the body in progress. Irie Shouichi exhales and pretends to believe. He can buy them little time, but hopes it’ll be enough for Sawada to perfect whatever technique he’s blown Dendro Chilum away with. There is only one checkpoint of their plan left now, Shouichi has to improvise the rest, but he trusts Spanner to do the right thing even if they haven’t spoken for more than a year.

He knew him once. Now, he can only hope and play his part properly.

**Author's Note:**

> written for prompt:  
> Irie/Spanner - contest; "I thought I knew you"
> 
> I find it curious that out of all (limited) choices Shouichi could make, he chose Spanner to assist Tsuna. He counted on Spanner to defy an explicit order (which to the best of Spanner's knowledge at the moment is treason and suicide) to basicly satisfy his curiosity and long-standing ambition. So while their previous interaction at robotic competition is anime filler and therefore not strictly canon, all in all this implies more than simple familiarity.
> 
> BTW in my headcanon Shouichi is MIT graduate.


End file.
